A much-anticipated drawing for free-lance dockworker positions — that could lead to well-compensated union positions on the docks later — appeared to be back on Tuesday, despite objections by union officials that the effort had been botched.
The actual drawing should begin in a couple of days, an official said Tuesday.
“Moving forward,” Mondo Porras, vice president of the International Longshore Warehouse Union, Local 13 that represents about 7,000 dockworkers said in a text.
The process had been set to begin a day earlier but local union officials refused to participate amid concerns that many of the mail submissions never got into the drawing.
After the ILWU local filed a complaint about irregularities, an arbitrator that handles disputes between the union and its employer the Pacific Maritime Association intervened late Monday, ordering the count to proceed for now.
But, Porras said, the union has appealed that order and it is set to be heard Feb. 14.
He said the union was motivated by members who last week voted to stop the count after a “large number of cards were returned to sender,” he said.
Most of those cards, known as “interest cards,” are referral forms given to union members and officials and generally get submitted by friends and family members of union workers. Hopefuls lucky enough to get a referral stand a bmuch etter chance of being selected.
“Process is going,” said PMA spokesman Wade Gates in an email.
“Counting and verifying first,” Gates said. “The actual drawing may not start for a couple of days.”
The rare drawing for the jobs at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports has drawn widespread interest.
An estimated 800,000 entries were submitted, which will be counted and verified by InterOptimis, a business-services company based in Moorpark.
The winners are given part-time work as “causals” who fill in shifts for which union workers are not available. The possibility of turning that into a full-time union position — one that can net more than $100,000 a year and get top-of-the line insurance — emerges as the workers gain more seniority.
Considered among the best blue-collar jobs in country, the jobs aren’t easy to come by. Only the first 2,400 names picked during this lottery will be screened to become casuals.
The rest will be called in sequential order on an as-needed basis.
The last time the union and PMA held a drawing in the Los Angeles area was in 2004 and many of those casuals are still waiting for a shot at a regular union job.
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